The Musée d'Orsay is one of the
most fantastic museums in the world.
It includes "mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography, and is probably best known for its extensive collection of impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces (the largest in the world)." I enjoyed taking photos there for the first time (permitted without flash) when I visited last month. I hope you'll enjoy the details of brushstrokes and color, as I have, in the following photos.
PAUL SIGNAC: "The Red Buoy"
1895 Oil on canvas
SIGNAC: THE RED BUOY photo by R. Burts
"Paul SIGNAC, an enthusiastic sailor, often painted seaside and port scenes, here St Tropez which he had discovered three years before on board his yacht Olympia. It was then a small fishing port soon to be frequented by many painters – CROSS, Matisse, DERAIN, Marquet – before becoming a fashionable tourist resort." - website Musée d'Orsay
PAUL SIGNAC: "Port La Rochelle"
1921 Oil on canvas
SIGNAC: PORT LA ROCHELLE photo by R. Burts
cloud detail (center, behind boat)
SIGNAC: PORT LA ROCHELLE photo by R. Burts
swirling cloud detail (upper-left corner)
"POINTILLISM is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of pure color are applied in patterns to form an image. Georges SEURAT developed the technique in 1886, branching from Impressionism. The term Pointillism was first coined by art critics in the late 1880s to ridicule the works of these artists and is now used without its earlier mocking connotation. The technique relies on the perceptive ability of the eye and mind of the viewer to mix the color spots into a fuller range of tones.....is more focused on the specific style of brushwork used to apply the paint...a technique with few serious practitioners and is notably seen in the works of SEURAT, SIGNAC and CROSS."-- wikipedia
PAUL SIGNAC: "Woman with a Parasol"
(Portrait of Signac’s Wife Berthe) 1893 Oil on canvas
"SIGNAC interprets the subject in a purely Neo-Impressionist manner. The painting plays on the simultaneous contrast of the colours, particularly green-orange/red and yellow-purple. The canvas is deliberately two dimensional, with no illusion of depth and the modelling is limited to the play of shadows over the face. Although the stylised effect of the work is reinforced by the model's frankly hieratic pose, the arabesques in the sleeves, the parasol and details like the stylised flower or the tassel on the handle accentuate the decorative look Signac was striving for." -- website Musée d'Orsay
SIGNAC: WOMAN WITH A PARASOL photo by R. Burts
detail (bottom-left corner)
SIGNAC: WOMAN WITH A PARASOL photo by R. Burts
umbrella detail
SIGNAC: WOMAN WITH A PARASOL photo by R. Burts
umbrella handle/tassel detail (lower-right corner)
For SIGNAC this monument became 'In the Time of Harmony' which was hung in the town hall of Montreuil, for CROSS it was 'The Evening Air.' -- Musée d'Orsay
HENRI-EDMOND CROSS: "The Evening Air"
1893-1894. Oil on canvas
"CROSS showed [this] painting at the third exhibition of the Neo-impressionist group and the Salon des Indépendants in 1894, before giving it to SIGNAC. Henri MATISSE saw it for the first time in Signac's dining room at La Hune and in turn used it as an inspiration for his painting 'Luxury, Calm and Voluptuousness.' " -- Musée d'Orsay
CROSS: THE EVENING AIR photo by R. Burts
sailboat detail (right)
CROSS: THE EVENING AIR photo by R. Burts
detail, trees and group of women (center)
CROSS: THE EVENING AIR photo by R. Burts
lower-left corner detail
lower-left corner detail
HENRI-EDMOND CROSS: "The Shipwreck"
1906-07 Oil on canvas
CROSS: THE SHIPWRECK photo by R. Burts
ship, sailor and surge detail (center)
ship, sailor and surge detail (center)
CROSS: THE SHIPWRECK photo by R. Burts
detail; center
detail; center
ANDRE DERAIN: "Charing Cross Bridge"
(also known as "Westminster Bridge")
Oil on canvas 1906
"At the 1905 Salon d'automne, DERAIN shared the same gallery as Matisse, VLAMINCK and Van Dongen. A critic, noticing a sculpture by Albert Marque in the middle of these vividly coloured paintings, remarked : "Mais c'est Donatello parmi les fauves!" ("Look, it's Donatello among wild beasts!"). The phrase caught on and gave origin to the word "Fauvism". Rather than being a structured movement, Fauvism was a point of agreement between young painters for whom pure colour was to serve as the expressive and emotional transcription of the world rather than a means to create the illusion of reality." -- website Musée d'Orsay
tree detail (bottom-left corner)
"DERAIN went twice to London where he produced some thirty paintings. Charing Cross Bridge is recognized as one of the finest Fauvist compositions. The street and buildings are painted in large flat tones while the changing sky and water are treated in small, fragmented touches reminiscent of the Neo-impressionist style. The forms of the vehicles are distorted, their silhouettes echoing the curb of the Victoria embankment to give a sensation of speed." -- website Musée d'Orsay
MAURICE de VLAMINCK:
"Restaurant 'La Machine' at Bougival"
ca. 1905 Oil on canvas
de VLAMINCK: RESTAURANT A BOUGIVAL photo by R. Burts
detail, tree (right)
Oil on canvas 1891
with its 'rough humanity.' "-- website Musée d'Orsay
BERNARD: HARVEST BY THE SEA photo by R. Burts
haystacks, houses detail (upper right corner)
Oil on canvas 1862
MANET: LOLA DE VALENCE photo by R. Burts
dress detail
additional details...
gloves: detail from MANET'S "Le Balcon" 1868-69
photo by R. Burts
photo by R. Burts
photo by R. Burts
all detail photos by R. Burts
RELATED POSTS :
The Art of the Steal:
[The Barnes Foundation]
Stars and Stripes Forever
